After Bush, Bill

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up former US president Bill Clinton in New York, possibly in a bid to deflect the gathering feeling abo...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up former US president Bill Clinton in New York, possibly in a bid to deflect the gathering feeling about New Delhi preferring a Republican incumbent in the White House. Clinton, who is recuperating at home after heart surgery recently, is probably the best known Democratic face in India. With candidate John Kerry campaigning furiously8212;although there was some talk yesterday that the PM and Kerry could also speak to each other on the phone8212;Clinton was a good catch. He told Manmohan Singh that he was interested in 8216;8216;working to uplift the underprivileged and deprived8217;8217; the world over, exactly the PM8217;s own sentiments. The former President, who manages to still command a fan following, is likely to visit India soon8212;as soon as he gets better, that is.

UNited on Iraq

Manmohan Singh is the first Indian PM to meet a UN Secretary General at the UN in 10 years. Singh met Kofi Annan on Tuesday evening and reaffirmed India8217;s commitment to UN reform in general and Security Council reform in particular. The last Indian PM to meet a UNSG was Narasimha Rao in 1994; former PM Vajpayee wasn8217;t particularly keen on Annan, especially after his criticism of the nuclear tests in 1998 and his naming of Kashmir two years ago as one of the four hotspots of the world.

Annan, who has declared the invasion of Iraq 8216;8216;illegal8217;8217; must feel comfortable with an Indian Prime Minister, since Parliament across the board passed a thumpingly critical resolution on the war in Iraq the week the Americans invaded. Whether or not the two principals discussed the war we don8217;t know, but Singh offered Indian assistance to conduct elections in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Delhi says Ma Cherie

The world8217;s eighth most powerful woman according to Forbes the same magazine that put Sonia Gandhi at the third most powerful woman slot, Cherie Blair is visiting India next month to promote a charity that intends to open a hundred schools across the country. The invitation was confirmed when the Prime Minister visited the Blairs in London. Although husband Tony was also invited, he is believed to have postponed his own visit to the summer of next year. But quite a lot of time in the bilateral conversation was said to have been spent on discussing how and why the Congress party surprisingly ousted the BJP from power in the May elections.

Meanwhile Cherie8217;s visit is already sending the adrenalin pumping through New Delhi. Not only is she the British PM8217;s wife and mother to four kids, Cherie practises under her own name as a Queen8217;s Counsel with London8217;s Matrix chambers. At the age of 14 at school, she told all the girls in her class that she was going to be prime minister one day. 8216;8216;Unfortunately, someone else beat me to it,8217;8217; she said recently. New Delhi certainly looks forward to some electrifying days in October.

PM defies predictions

All those astrologers predicting that the Congress government will fall on September 26 better check their charts again. Turns out that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s birthday, which falls on September 26, may not even be his real birthday. As Singh told reporters on board Air India One, en route to New York from London, he doesn8217;t even know when he was born, leave alone the time of his birth.

Turns out that September 26 is the day Manmohan Singh was admitted to primary school in a village called Gah, now in Pakistan. His mother passed away when he was very young and nobody kept any records, as was common at the time, especially in rural areas. All those astrologers plotting definitive charts on the basis of events already taken place, better beware. This PM, however earnest and publicly diffident, is not about to give up his job in a hurry.